Feds Order Insurers To Cover Birth Control Free Of Charge To Women

This is exciting news for women. I can only hope that the insurance companies don't try to find a way to get around this. This would be such a tremendous help to people that really don't want to have kids right away or have any more kids. What took government so long to act on this one?

Even though the decision was widely expected, there's no denying the news is still a pretty big deal. Today, the Department of Health and Human Services adopted in full the women's health recommendations issued two weeks ago by the independent Institute of Medicine.

"Since birth control is the most common drug prescribed to women ages 18-44, insurance plans should cover it," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a press briefing. "Not doing it would be like not covering flu shots, or any of the other basic preventive services that millions of other Americans count on every day."

The upshot: Starting a year from now, most new health insurance policies, and eventually almost every policy, will have to offer a comprehensive list of women's preventive health services with no copay or deductible, including all forms of prescription contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

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